With the continuing expansion and availability of public and private computer networks it is becoming increasingly common to use these networks for remote video and image surveillance. Historically, analog systems have been used for CCTV systems for purposes such as surveillance. They include an analog video camera, a video cable, and a monitor/TV and/or a VCR recording device. Multiple cameras can be hooked to multiple recording VCRs for complete coverage of one or more target areas. Specialized equipment known as a multiplexer or ‘MUX’ can be used to allow multiple cameras to be hooked to a single recording/view device. The multiplexer takes all video feeds in a sequential fashion, recording from one camera at a time. This allows the quantity of cameras to share a single recording tape. Besides the limitations of a serial tape system, additional limitations are introduced when the sequencing rate of the multiplexer is too slow to allow sufficient video record/view speed of a given camera view. Multiplexers are typically expensive and have limited expandability without purchasing additional complete systems. Also, the configuration of these systems usually requires a skilled technician to be available at the systems site which increases the total cost of implementing such systems.
Digital systems have become more prevalent with the advent of standardized digital componentry. These systems utilize the same analog cameras and cabling, but introduce a capture card based collector. This collector can be a proprietary digital device or a PC based computer, either of which has analog video inputs directly connected to it. These inputs convert the video to digital for viewing and recording and may even retransmit the signal to analog tape for recording purposes. A factor limiting these digital systems is that an autonomous computer is required relatively near the video sources, sometimes with user intervention required at regular intervals. These machines are also hardware bound. The number of capture cards is limited to the specific design of the collecting equipment. These systems are usually proprietary to a particular manufacturer and can be very expensive. Remote viewing is usually not available. Failover or redundancy function is also limited and expensive, due to the fact that the system is usually duplicated for redundancy. As with the analog systems discussed above, these systems also have configuration requirements that typically require a skilled technician.
There now exists commercially available networkable cameras that can be accessed over networks running TCP/IP, including both LANs and global networks such as the Internet. Ethernet-based digital video servers are now common that are small, autonomous, and usually contain a web-based configuration utility, as well as administration software. These cameras can be accessed and, in the case of pan/tilt/zoom (PTZ) cameras, controlled over the network using an assigned IP address and standard CGI-based URL syntax or other manufacturer-specified addressing protocols. This allows an authorized user to control the product from anywhere via the Internet or a dialup connection, and allows live images and image streams (video) to be accessed remotely using standard web browsers.
The video servers exist in two forms. One is a camera server that is a complete product containing both a camera and a web server with an Ethernet port. The other is a component based video server with inputs for one or more analog video feeds, which the user can connect to conventional camera PAL or NTSC video feeds. The inputted analog video feeds are converted to digital signals and sent from the video servers' Ethernet port. Thus, the video servers (whether integrated in as part of a camera server or as a standalone unit) can be connected to the Ethernet-based networks commonly used in businesses and other computer enabled sites. These video servers can be connected to these network segments and are fully compatible with existing data on these networks. The video data can be received by standard PC computers which require no special hardware other than an Ethernet connection. The cameras can be easily configured by a novice user who has very basic experience with the Internet.
Ethernet video servers connect to an Ethernet connection and deliver digital video based on user requests or internal scripting agents. A user requests video images via standard CGI enhanced URL syntaxes. These syntaxes control the image metrics and other features of the requested video stream. The images are sent to the user as either static JPG snapshots, or as continuous JPG streams. Rates to 30 FPS are easily attainable. Since these images are delivered by Ethernet, the camera servers are very robust. Although a requested image may not be received completely in an expected time frame, the video server will wait for the user to complete its requests and processing. This virtually guarantees delivery of video, except where a connection to the video server is terminated.
When the user requests a video image or stream, the user is actually requesting a static image that appears to exist as a file in a directory structure on the video server. When the user requests a copy of this image, the video server actually updates it with a new image from the camera source, and the user receives a picture that is up to date. Subsequent requests are to the identical file name, and the server does the updating of its content.
Although IP-based network cameras and camera servers have now evolved to a relatively advanced state, the use of a browser-based interface to this hardware has seemingly impeded development of user interfaces that provide simplified, automated control over the acquisition of snapshot and streaming images over the network. Access to the camera images typically requires knowledge of the manufacturer's CGI-based syntax to access snapshot or streaming images. For example, to access a particular camera, the user may have to specify to the browser an address in the form of http//Uid:PW@111.111.111.111/cgi-bin/fullsize.jpg?camera=1&compression=1. While this may be handled easily enough for a single camera by bookmarking or pulling the URL out of the browser's history buffer, the task becomes more difficult when the user desires to change the access parameters or where different cameras need to be accessed. Where the identified camera cannot be accessed, such as for example due to an improper address being specified, the user may simply receive a standard “404 not found” error message that is not helpful in diagnosing either the error or actual reason why access was not available.
Moreover, browser-based access is typically limited to either a snapshot mode or streaming images. In the snapshot mode, a single image is returned when the appropriate URL is entered into the browser. Subsequent images from the camera are then accessed using the browser's “reload” or “refresh” button. In the streaming mode, once the appropriate URL is specified, the remote server or camera simply begins streaming image files back to the browser. This results in relatively high network utilization that may be undesirable in a shared network environment.
It is therefore a general object of this invention to provide an improved user interface and approach to the network transmission of images from commercially available network cameras.